Worship?

[Diana]

It saddens me when I see people take a word , wring from it the lowest possible associations and use that to lose themselves in anger, confusion, etc.  A word is just a word and a concept is what you, yourself, discover through it.

...

The word is just a word.  Such experience is priceless.  You choose.

I think you may be referring to my post.  Allow me to dig a little deeper.

In general: A word is not just a word in my opinion. Words have power, or why would there be a banishing ritual? I think the intention behind words may really be the point, and yet...I don't know, sound is vibration, so is it crazy to think the vibratory aspects of a word would differ? What about derogatory words for dark-skinned people? Would those words not have a connotation difficult to override?

The word, "faith," certainly has been hijacked by religions, for example. There is a collective consciousness behind such words that adds to the word's impact or meaning. That said, it doesn't mean one can't rise above that energetic influences. 

There are many, many, many levels of love, one of which is worship.  I might describe it as an experience of majesty, an encapsulation of infinity, which opens up doorways to experiences of awe and expansiveness and resonance with oneness and all that is.

If one can experience worship that way, then great.

The connotation of "worship" is very heavy with adulation and hierarchy and "I am a little insignificant being who cannot function without a higher being leading the way." I would not encourage anyone to engage in the sort of worship you describe which seems good, before they rise above the 3D religious uses of the idea. 

Worship to me may somehow lead to unity but I think it is a way that rather makes a relationship to one being (infinite and inclusive though it might be) instead of directly uniting to all things. To me it is missing crucial steps. Why not just work consciously toward unity of all things (this is what I mean by respect for all life). Why does one have to go through the OIC to do that? It is too close to religious thinking for me. It may seem more direct just connecting to the OIC, but I disagree with that; it bypasses actually acknowledging for one's self that other life forms matter. It is like the difference between putting the pieces of a puzzle together one by one working on each piece to understand where and how it fits, and, admiring its beauty when all put together without having done the actual work.

The numinous-seeming majesty of this existence is indeed awesome. 

If we, like a piece of metal to a magnet, focus on the source (OIC), following a magnetism that does not fail to attract, what sort of choice is that? The choice seems to me to be very one-dimensional and lacking in creativity, accountability, and responsibility. We all do what we do and walk our individual paths. This world is what it is. I just think the human race would be better off not looking to something higher to bring about evolution and change—I think it happens individually from within the self and that includes total responsibility and thinking things out for one's self. "Worship" does not sync up with full accountability to me, if one is just concerned about being accountable to something else (OIC). It is like worrying about being harvestable or karma. "If I am mean to another person, will I accrue karma?" Well, if the karma is thought to be avoided by not doing something one thinks "shouldn't" be done, then accountability is bypassed because a real understanding (and connection to other-selves) is not there—just the desire for self to not accrue karma.

I do suspect we may be talking at cross purposes to some extent. So I look forward to anything more you may add, Sacred Fool.